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PSYCHOTHERAPY 

OR THE 

Ministry of the Church 
to the Body. 

BY 

Rev. Samuel Medary Dick, Ph. D. 



Five sermons delivered in Wesley Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, Minn., 
Sunday evenings in January, 
1909 



^4 



f CONGRESS 

Two Cooies Received 

MAR 13 1«09 

Copyriuai entry 

GLASS C\_^ )'vaC. No. 

COPY 8. 



Copyright, 1909 

by 
Samuel M. Dick 



FOREWORD 




|HESE sermons were delivered to crowds of 
the most intelligent and cultured people 
in Minneapolis, that filled the large audi- 
torium of Wesley church to its full seat- 
ing capacity. 

The content of these sermons is based 
upon the Holy Scriptures and the best 
scientific authority on this new phase of mental science. 
They are not technical nor critical discussions of Psy- 
chotherapy, but an attempt to show that the ministry 
to the body is not foreign to the gospel in its redemptive 
power, and the methods of ministry as taught in Psycho- 
therapy may become a powerful supplement to evangeli- 
cal Christianity. 

The demands for the sermons in print have been so 
numerous that the Official Board of the Church, by official 
action, authorized their publication. For this apprecia- 
tive act on the part of my official members I express sin- 
cerest thanks. 

With keenest appreciation of the large number of en- 
dorsements received from those who heard the sermons 
I send them forth hoping that their mission may thus 
be broadened and those desiring may have them for pre- 
servation. 

SAMUEL MEDARY DICK, 

Minneapolis, Minn. 




FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MENTAL HEALING 



Thy faith hath made thee whole. — Mark 5 :34. 



Bless the Lord, O my soul : and all that is within me, 
bless his holy name. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his bene- 
fits: 

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy 
diseases ; 

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crown- 
eth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies; 

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that 
thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. — Psalms 103 : 1-5. 



Upon waking each morning make this language the 
preamble of thy thought for the day. 



First Principles of Mental Healing 




HILE I have chosen this language from 
Mark, I might have taken the text in sim- 
ilar language from Matthew and also from 
Luke. I might have chosen it from any of 
these various gospels, in more than one 
place and under different circumstances. 
I have chosen this remark which Jesus 
uttered so often during his ministry, "Thy Faith hath 
made thee whole," because it announces the fundamental 
principle of Psychotherapy. It was uttered only in con- 
nection with physical healing. 

The teaching of Psychotherapy is becoming world- 
wide. I will not undertake to recite its history in detail 
tonight but will say that for four or five years, in Eng- 
land and upon the continent of Europe, Psychotherapy 
has received special attention. Clinics have been opened 
in the great medical hospitals, and the work is finding its 
way into the churches, and through the clergy is reaching 
the people. It was introduced into this country through 
Drs. Worcester and McComb, of Emmanuel church, Bos- 
ton, and is coming to be known throughout the country 



8 First Principles of 

through the articles in the various newspapers and maga- 
zines. So far as I have information, the work in Wesley 
church was the second opened upon the American con- 
tinent. Since the opening in Wesley church, there have 
been a large number of centers opened in various church- 
es throughout the country, so that the movement has 
grown until the question arises as to the wisdom of the 
churches taking up the work of ministering to the body. 
What shall be the message of healing in the Church of 
Christ? 

It is important, perhaps, to know the foundations of 
this great movement from the scientific standpoint, and 
the grounds on which scientists arrive at their conclu- 
sions. This will determine whether or not the church 
has a right to teach this great truth and to minister to 
the bodies of the people, through its instrumentality. 
There are three supreme facts of the universe that de- 
mand our attention in dealing with the principles of life. 
First, the supreme fact of the material universe; second, 
the great personality that lies back of the material uni- 
verse ; third, the fact of human life, the focal point of all 
law whether in the material universe or of the great Spir- 
itual personality back of the material universe. In deal- 
ing with these great problems we must recognize this 
fact, that law is universal and that the entire universe, 
from that little particle known as the atom in matter to 
the greatest infinite law of the spirit, is all one, and the 
continuity is perfect. We must recognize in this great 



Mental Healing 



system of law governing the world of material and spirit- 
ual reality that there is perfect harmony. There is no dis- 
cord in law. We must recognize the fact that law is God's 
order, his first order. The raindrop that patters down in 
the springtime, and as it falls catches the sunbeam and 
splits it into its prismatic colors; and his little neighbor, 
the snowflake, that within the last hour has covered our 
door-steps and carpeted our streets; the leaf as it comes 
from the bud to its full maturity, the blades of grass in 
their beauty which carpet the earth, the flower that fills 
the air with its fragrance and then withers and dies, — all 
these accomplish their purpose and do their work under 
one mighty law which is the expression of the divine 
Father's will. 

There is another fact that we must recognize in the in- 
terest of harmony, viz., that higher laws may modify or 
annul the forces of lower laws. That a lower law always 
behaves itself differently in the presence of a higher law, 
from what it does in the presence of another lower law. 
We must also recognize that in the harmony of law, 
when the lower law seems to have been thrown into dis- 
cord or its influence seems to have been abolished and 
its force seems to have been repealed, it is not lost, but 
only swallowed up in the higher law ; there is no discord. 
Temporarily, we may say, it has been repealed or a law 
of nature has been reversed. When there is a personality 
manifesting itself in the operation of any law it may seem 
to reverse that law and for a time such manifestation may 
not be understood even in this age of understanding. 



10 First Principles of 

The early Church fathers may have called such a manifes- 
tation a reversal of law, a miracle, but they did not mean 
by that expression "miracle" that any law was violated, 
or any law was repealed, or any law was annulled, but 
only the presence of that higher law that is expressed in 
the operation of personality. 

In this great harmony of the universe and this expres- 
sion of law which covers everything from the lowest par- 
ticle of matter to the highest expression of spirit, we 
must recognize that back of it is the law-giver, and this 
law-giver is the infinite source of infinite life. We cannot 
get the harmony out of the universe without we come to 
the realization of the one great fact that back of the uni- 
verse there is the intelligence of the Infinite Spirit. 

Now we turn to the third supreme fact, in order to 
learn the foundation principles of the great law we are 
studying, which is human life. It is as important as the 
law of the universe itself for it is a part of the universe. 
Body, mind, and spirit, physical organism, personality — 
it is this that makes the difference between the animal 
mind and the human mind. Back of the harmony of the 
great universe lies intelligence forming every relationship 
and demonstrating the power that mind has over matter. 
We must accept for the control of the bodily organism 
that law which relates the mind to the bodily universe. 
You can scarcely turn to the body of man without realiz- 
ing that you have present in it every law that is seen or 
moves in the material universe ; that there is a system of 
advancing order in organism from the lower to the higher, 



Mental Healing 11 

but no order of development in the animal kingdom 
reaches to the conception of self-consciousness. The con- 
scious nature is ever manifest and expresses itself in va- 
rious ways, manifesting a large variety of emotions. The 
animal manifests emotions of love, hatred, joy, fear, jeal- 
ousy, and many other signs of the presence of sub-con- 
scious traits. Indeed animal actions are all based on in- 
stinct, which is closely allied to the intuitive in man, and 
the subconscious in man acts by intuition and not by 
reason. 

We find also that this physical organism partakes of 
the nature of a machine. It is splendidly organized. It 
is marvelous in every expression of the great mechanical 
skill of an Allwise Creator. It requires food, water, air. 
When it is in order, we say it is healthy ; in disorder, we 
say it is sick or ill; when it fails to function, we say it is 
dead, and it merges back into its mother clay. We can 
realize its force by taking the machrne aspect into consid- 
eration. When it is in perfect order, it gives off heat 
and energy, and when the functions cease, it weakens 
and dies. We cannot fail to recognize that it must have 
care and direction similar to the machine. Take the 
locomotive that runs across the country. What would 
be the effect if we pulled the lever letting the machine 
go uncontrolled ? What would be the result if the 
steam engine ran the engineer? Would you risk your 
life behind it? Wherever there is friction in a journ- 
al, it must be removed; if it gets dirty, it must be cleaned 
and the machine must be kept in order if it is going 



12 First Principles of 

to do the work and meet the ends for which it was 
made. Now this bodily machine is intimately linked with 
indestructible personality and it is this linking together 
that allies it to the infinite. It bears the image of God 
and partakes of the attributes of the Father. It contains 
all the laws of the material universe and all the laws of 
the spiritual universe; as the image of God, it bears the 
very nature of the great source of life that lies back of the 
material universe; as physical organism, it bears the 
nature of the physical universe itself. Paul knew what 
he was talking about when he spoke of the natural .and 
the spiritual, the touch of the finite with the infinite. It 
is the linking together of the material with the spiritual 
in this close relationship that makes it worth while to 
study this machine. 

On the side of the spiritual, we use the phrase person- 
ality, and speak of man as a personality. What do we 
mean by personality? Dr. Strong gives this formula: 
personality— self -consciousness-f-self -determination. This 
means that a person has the power of declaring his re- 
lationship to other objects and determining who he is and 
what he is. If I were to stop to quote from Drs. Hudson, 
Worcester and McComb, they teach that this is true ; that 
most of the causes of functional nervous disorders, by 
which this machine is thrown out of order and rendered 
imperfect and out of tune affect the personality, and there 
is an influence brought upon the spiritual life, upon the 
inner man, detrimental to character and the true life. The 
remedy offered for such functional disorders must be of 



Mental Healing 13 

such a character as to restore the personality. The 
Psalmist said "He restoreth my soul," and any affliction 
that affects the personality for adverse character cannot 
be remedied merely by restoring the body. You say at 
once that this is true, and we are to take up this question 
and settle it from the standpoint of the Christian. Man 
differs from the animal because of this personality, and 
this personality is susceptible to marvelous influence. In 
the days of the prophets, they called it inspiration. I 
asked the choir to sing that simple gospel song of the 
"Ninety and Nine" because I wanted to tell you some- 
thing of its story — the story of the music. I asked them 
to use the familiar tune. You are aware that the music 
was written by Ira D. Sankey, the sweet singer associat- 
ed with Moody in the great work of evangelization. Seat- 
ed in the train one morning, while reading a religious 
newspaper, he discovered the poem entitled the "Ninety 
and Nine." He said to Mr. Moody, "I have found my 
hymn." He did not know what music he might use with 
it. It had not been set to music. Mr. Moody paid but 
little attention at the time. A few days later, they were 
holding service and one of the preachers had preached a 
sermon on the "Great Shepherd." Turning to Sankey, 
Moody asked him to sing a song. He had already sung 
the 23d Psalm and just at that moment could not think of 
anything that fitted the sermon. Then came the impulse 
to sing the "Ninety and Nine," but he had not written a 
tune for it. But the impulse came the second time, sing it 
anyway; and upon this impulse, he began to sing not 



14 First Principles of 

knowing when he struck the chord on the organ where 
he was going to end. He didn't know what the harmony 
would be; he didn't know where he was going to come 
out, he had no meter in the music, but he finished the first 
stanza. He did not know whether he could sing the sec- 
ond in the same way or not, but by the grace of God, he 
made the effort, he followed the outline of the first stanza 
and succeeded in getting the second as easily as the first, 
and so he continued to the end. After he went to his 
room, he wrote the music and immediately it swept 
throughout the Christian world. 

What is the teaching? Where did he get the tune? 
Who struck the chord and out of his soul flowed that 
song? It was what we would call inspiration, the touch 
of his personality with the divine, the great source of 
infinite life that made it possible for Ira D. Sankey to give 
to the world that music. That is what I want to say to 
you — that it is in the touch that this personality has with 
the infinite personality that makes the difference between 
man and the beast of the field. The conscious mind is 
the animal mind. Paul spoke distinctly of two minds — 
the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit. We have 
the conscious or animal mind in the flesh, and the sub- 
conscious or spirit mind which has its source in the per- 
sonality, and lies underneath the conscious nature. The 
question now arises which shall dominate? Shall the 
conscious mind dominate our being, or shall the subcon- 
scious dominate? Shall the person dominate the ma- 
chine or the machine dominate the person? If you were 



Mental Healing 15 

to board a train in this city tomorrow for a journey to 
the Pacific coast, which would you prefer, that the en- 
gineer should keep control in the cab of the locomotive or 
that the locomotive should be the master of the engineer? 
Which would be your preference if you were going to 
trust the safety of your life to the man and the machine ? 
Would you prefer that the engineer with his intelligence, 
with his knowledge, his keen sense of responsibility, his 
understanding and reason be the master, or that he should 
be subservient to the machine and that it should go hith- 
er and thither, on main track or side, or not run at all? 
I think you would answer that question very quickly. 
You would prefer that the engineer with his power of 
thought should be the supreme master of that combina- 
tion of forces. 

I think we shall find before we conclude this series of 
discussions that there is just as much difference between 
the subconscious and conscious mind, and there are just 
as many reasons why the subconscious mind should dom- 
inate as there are that the engineer should direct the en- 
gine. The first principle in mental healing lies in getting 
the working mind to know the difference between the 
animal consciousness and the personal consciousness. 
There is the animal consciousness and there is the per- 
sonal consciousness, and getting the relationship between 
them fixed is the technical question. How the one is re- 
lated to the other and the determination of that relation 
is the foundation principle in mental healing. In the 
language of my text, the Savior states, "Thy faith hath 



16 First Principles of 

made thee whole." Analyze that statement and you will 
find nothing of the miraculous in it. This does not mean 
that Jesus used no miraculous power. Jesus attributes 
no power of his own to the healing. He attributed it to 
this one thing: that the power of the reconstruction of 
the body was inherent in the body itself. In connection 
with such healing as the text refers to Jesus declares that 
virtue had gone out of him, showing his personal touch 
with healing. The human race has undertaken to dis- 
cover the laws of the universe. It fell to that great schol- 
ar, Sir Isaac Newton, to give to the world his theory of 
gravitation. Can you prove it? Can you demonstrate 
it? Can you say there are no worlds that will not obey 
it? No, but it seems that this is true. Men that work 
out relations of planets on that hypothesis for a founda- 
tion find them to act as they predict. For the scholar- 
ship of Newton, we may have admiration, or we may 
scorn, but if a man technically versed in his teaching 
should announce to the world that on a given day in the 
year 1909 there will be a certain part of the sun covered 
by a certain part of the moon, and at a certain place the 
eclipse will appear at a certain moment, every sane and 
intelligent man and woman would believe it, and if desir- 
ous of seeing it would place himself in the spot described 
and expect to see the eclipse appear at the very moment 
designated. Why? Because the scientist has based his 
calculation on the Newton theorem. Not that the theor- 
em has been proven, but when the astronomer calculates 
as if it were, the results are as Newton announced. 



Mental Healing 1 7 

What about the atomic theory? Has any microscope 
been made with sufficient power to discover the atom? 
No ! No scientist will tell you that he ever saw an atom, 
or ever paused to demonstrate it. And yet every calcu- 
lation he makes is based on that theory. Here again the 
results are the same as if the atomic theory were true. 

That is what we are trying to discover ; the relationship 
between the personality and the conscious mind of the 
animal nature as a working hypothesis by which we may 
make a scientific statement as to what will be the result 
of the power of mind over matter or how the mind will 
dominate matter. Matter yields itself as in the days of 
Jesus when he said to the woman, "Daughter, thy faith 
hath made thee whole;" when he looked into the face 
of the blind man and said, "Thy faith hath made thee 
whole ;" when the ten lepers came to him and were healed, 
and he said to the one who returned, "Thy faith hath 
made thee whole.' , Not in a single instance, in regard to 
the cure of the issue of blood, opening the eyes of the 
blind man, or healing of the leper did Jesus attribute to 
himself miraculous power, or even any power; I do not 
say whether it was miraculous or not. Whatever was 
this power, he told the man and woman that the power 
residing within themselves reconstructed the flesh. 

In the discussion a week later, I shall take up the his- 
tory of mental healing from the beginning. I am not 
doing that tonight for it does not apply here. I want to 
show you in the subject of mental healing that the power 
to heal does reside in the mind, and that there may be 



18 First Principles of Mental Healing 

marvelous physiological transformations by men who 
have no faith in God, and by men who do not necessarily 
believe in God. That does not take it out of the domain 
of religion. I want to say to you that while this power 
has been used from the beginning of the human race, it 
has been only within the past ten years that we have 
found scientific data whereby a man dared to make a 
statement in^legard to it. It is known that the subcon- 
scious mind is open to suggestion. 

In conclusion, the physical body relates us to the mate- 
rial universe ; personality relates us to the infinite source 
of health and life that lies back of the universe. The 
mind is the active medium between physical power and 
spiritual power; the medium between the great physical 
universe and the greater spiritual universe with all of 
its grandeur and glory. 

This is the first principle of mental healing : the recog- 
nition of the fact that mind puts its power on matter and 
brings the infinite and the finite into relationship. 

The power or law of the mind is a higher law than the 

law of matter, and the lower law is always subject to the 
higher law ; the lower law is always directed by the high- 
er law, this order is never reversed unless there is a medi- 
ating power between, which gives ascendency to the one 
and depression to the other. Carry out that thought and 
you will see that the first great principle of mental heal- 
ing lies in the universal law of suggestion acting by 
faith ; that the law is divine in its character and the most 
rational ground of faith is Christ, who is the author of 
the law, for "without him was not anything made that 
was made." 










MENTAL HEALING NOT A RELIGION 



And he could there do no mighty work, save that he 
laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. — 
Mark 6 :5. 



And he did not many mighty works there because of 
their unbelief.— Matthew 13:58. 



There is the soul life, direct from God. This it is that 
relates us to the Infinite. There is, then, the physical 
life. This it is that relates us to the material universe 
about us. The thought life connects the one with the 
other. It is this that plays between the two. — Trine. 



Mental Healing not a Religion 




F I SHOULD follow my text tonight from 

the exegetical standpoint, it would lead me 

to the discussion of the merits or demerits 

in the laying on of hands for the healing 

of diseases, and it is a good theme and 

worthy of an hour's discussion. But I 

have not chosen this text with that view 

in mind. I have chosen it because it supplements the 

text of last Sunday night, in which Jesus said "Thy Faith 

hath made thee whole." I said to you at that time that 

the first principle of mental healing is that the power of 

healing resides in the individual. Mark supplements that 

in tonight's lesson when he says, "And he could there do 

no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few 

sick folk, and healed them," and Matthew when he says 

hat, "He did not many mighty works there because of 

heir unbelief," showing that where there was a lack of 

aith, he recognized limitations on the part of the exercise 

f his power. I would not teach you from this pulpit that 

esus did not possess miraculous power, for I believe he 

lid possess it, and exercised it; but I believe there is a 



22 Mental Healing 

universal law of mental healing, the power to exercise a 
which resides in the patient, and that Jesus never used j 
miraculous power where it was possible to use this law, i 
and to obtain results. When there was a universal law { 
at the command of the Savior, by which bodies could be 
healed and disease rebuked, he did not resort to miracu- 
lous power to do the work; he accomplished it by the ^ 
universal law aft his command. Because of unbelief on 
the part of some of these people, Jesus laid his hands on 1 
them, to supplement their faith in order that they might 
be healed. 

Modern science has demonstrated that there is a thera- 
peutic value in laying on of hands. Jesus may not have 
thought of this law in its scientific sense, but he knew 
its value as a supplement to faith, and where he found 
opportunity to use it he did so as in the cases under con- 
sideration. 

I will call your attention tonight to this universal law 
as a law that is inherent in the patient and falls within 
the domain of natural law. I mean by that, that it is not 
a religion. It may be a means of God's revelation of 
himself to the world. But revelation given by natural or 
material law is not adequate; the great means of reveal- 
ing God to Man is the mind. It is the spiritual nature 
expressing itself in thought that bears the closest rela- 
tionship to the divine Father, and God has therefore 
given us the greater revelation through the principles of 
mind and heart. 

Mental healing is a universal law that reveals God to 



i 






not a Religion 23 

the same extent as any other universal law, possibly 
more, on account of its beneficence. It is as universal as 
gravitation. Its effects are universal and beneficent to 
the human race. Whether we call it a law of God or of 
Nature, it has the same effect on suffering humanity. I 
am persuaded in my own mind, as I have tried to teach 
from the beginning of this Wesley movement, that every 
law that governs your physical organism is a divine law ; 
and when we recognize this law as a divine law it brings 
us into closer touch with Him. 

Because a law is beneficent does not make it a religious 
law, nor does it make it a religion. For example, the law 
governing the freezing of water is a beneficent law; no 
law in Science is more beneficent ; yet it is not a religion. 
(Though entering some churches we might think that 
religion was based on some sort of freezing process.) 

The law of mental healing is adapted to all religions, 
Christian, Pagan or Heathen, and is as applicable in one 
as in the other, although not necessarily as apparent. It 
has been the means of restoring the body to healthful con- 
dition from the beginning of the human race. If we were 
to go back to the time of Hippocrates, who has been called 
the "Father of Medicine," and date the science of medi- 
cine from 400 B. C. at which time he flourished, we would 
still recognize that medicine as a healing agency is in its 
infancy as compared with the law of suggestion. But we 
have not yet come to realize much of this great principle. 
For century upon century it was the only means that 
humanity knew by which the body might be healed ; the 
only means by which there might be a ministry for the 



24 Mental Healing 

relief of suffering humanity in its bodily form, in its man- 
ifold ways. It belongs to every tribe and to every age 
of the human race. From the day when God first breathed 
the breath of life into Adam in the garden of Eden, this 
healing system of mental suggestion has been manifest. 
It is a strange fact that this has been manifested in every 
tribe, in every age, and in every form of life. Take, for 
instance, that of the American Indian, with which some 
of you are familiar, if you have witnessed the pow-wow 
of the medicine man. Their conception of disease was 
that it was the manifestation of an evil spirit or of evil 
spirits; and when disease appeared in their midst, the 
medicine man made himself up in the most diabolical way, 
and made hideous noises to scare away the evil spirits, 
and with their departure his patient was restored to 
health. Even today, with all the science of our skilled 
physicians, the pow-wow of the medicine man is more 
effective in the healing of disease in the American Indian 
than the treatment of the most skilled physicians who 
may come from the great universities of the land. This 
is not saying anything against the physician; it is only 
another manifestation of the power of this law of mental 
suggestion. 

The schools of faith cure and mental cure have been 
numerous. One of the most prominent of recent times 
was that of Prince Hohenlohe in 1794, who became a 
great healer and wrought many wonderful cures showing 
himself possessed of unusual so-called divine power. Lat- 
er on followed W. E. Boardman, proprietor of the "Nur- 
sery of Faith," North London. He refused to allow it to 



not a Religion 25 

be called a hospital. He wrought many great cures of 
which the evidence is absolutely indisputable. Coming 
now from across the sea to our own country, there was 
the school established by Dr. Chas. Cullis, of Boston, and 
the cases that he cured, especially of functional nervous 
disorders, were remarkable. Then came A. B. Simpson, 
of Old Orchard fame, who is still living in New York, I 
think, and who acquired a national reputation. Later we 
had John Alexander Dowie, of Chicago, who was known 
not only as a great faith healer but as a financier and the 
founder of Zion City. His great power and wealth were 
acquired through his domination of the minds of his fol- 
lowers and the marvelous cures that were wrought by 
him. I walked beside a man through the streets of Chi- 
cago and he said, "This building belongs to Alexander 
Dowie," and of another, "This building belongs to Alex- 
ander Dowie," and so of many others. Dowie related his 
faith cure to the religious life, but made it a means of 
getting rich. Then comes that most prominent cult, led 
by Mary Baker Eddy, with her power of healing. She 
has made it the foundation of a great religious movement 
and money making enterprise. All of these, and multi- 
tudes of others, have claimed to have the correct system. 
One thing is characteristic of all these schools or cults, 
that is their hatred of the medical fraternity. They have 
all tried to show that the science of medicine is unneces- 
sary and a failure. If there was any one thing they hated 
more than medicine, it was one another, each one claim- 
ing to have the correct demonstration because he worked 
cures. Let us look at that for a moment. All have 




26 Mental Healing 

claimed to have the correct system; all have worked 
equally great cures; all have been equally scientific in 
their own minds; all have been mystical and claimed 
supernatural power; some have been beneficent while 
others have used their power as a means of enriching 
themselves ; all have some truth and all have a great deal 
of error. But what seems strange in this law of mental 
healing is that inanimate places and things have power to 
heal as well as men and women. Knock Chapel, Ireland, 
has had wonderful demonstrations of mental cure; 
Lourdes, France, where the Virgin Mary was supposed to 
have revealed herself to a peasant girl several times in 
1858, has its long record of cures. Cures are wrought at 
the various religious shrines, throughout Greek and Rom- 
an Catholic countries, to which the multitudes go by the 
thousands, many by the aid of crutches, and come away 
in health and strength. Whether it be a man, woman, 
place or thing, the result is the same if the mind of the 
patient approaches it in the same light. Go back in your 
life to the early period of your own experience and you 
will remember, if you were brought up in the rural dis- 
tricts of New England, New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio, 
that people were often found carrying in their pockets 
a potato or a buckeye as a preventive of rheumatism or 
as a curing agency of rheumatism. And you ask, was 
anyone ever cured by such means? I say, yes, a multi- 
tude of men and women were cured of rheumatism by 
carrying a potato or buckeye in their pockets. Was 
there any merit in the potato? No, but some good, old 
motherly soul told someone that it never failed to cure 



not a Religion 27 

rheumatism, and so the potatoes were put in the pockets 
and the healing power suggested. That is the law of 
mental healing. 

Dr. Tuke, in his work on "The Influence of Mind Upon 
Body," tells of the curing of warts by selling the same to 
another, or by charming them away. Another supersti- 
tion was shown by the use of a toad. The hands were 
rubbed with the toad and it was thrown over the right 
shoulder. The patient must not look back or the charm 
was broken. Many a boy with the backs of his hands 
covered with warts, without any reference to science or 
use of caustic, has gotten rid of his warts by selling them 
to another boy for a trinket brought forth from the inex- 
haustible storehouse of a lad's pocket ; or, strange as this 
may seem, has cleared his hands of warts by the use of 
the toad. It all simply demonstrates this one principle 
that the power of mind that reconstructs the body resides 
within the man, and that the law of suggestion reaches 
it whether the suggestion comes from faith in Divine 
power or whether it comes from the ugly toad. So far 
as the law of suggestion is concerned the effect is the 
same when it reaches the subconscious mind. I do not 
mean by this that the power of suggestion may not be 
greatly augmented by an outside personality, but this 
does not change the truth of the above statement that so 
far as the law itself is concerned results may be obtained 
independent of an outside personality. Carry the thought 
further, and consider the primitive mind of humanity, and 
we find in the grossest superstitions of the most primitive 
minds of the world this power of healing, this power of 



28 Mental Healing 

reconstruction of fleshly tissue through the mind goes on. 
We follow it up to the highest exponent of modern schol- 
arship. We find it everywhere, and when we come to 
realize its simplicity, we say, how insignificant it is, but 
it is not insignificant. We can follow it through all 
schools of faith cures and divine healing of all grades and 
kinds. It manifests itself at all points between the ex- 
tremes of the superstitions of the primitive mind and the 
inductive scientific truth of modern scholarship. 

In 1625, in the siege of Breda, a disease then known as 
scurvy broke out in the army. The men became de- 
pressed and sick, so depressed that the Prince of Orange 
was on the point of capitulation. A so-called discovery 
was made by some man wise enough to know the value 
of mental suggestion. Each physician took three phials 
and put in them a harmless liquid and circulated the re- 
port that the marvelous medicine he had would cure the 
worst case of scurvy. The news went before them and 
Doctor Vonder Mye says, that men and soldiers who had 
not been able to be on their feet for a month, with the 
administration of a little liquid that was proven to be 
harmless in the case, were well and on duty in a very 
short time. So universal was the cure by the simple de- 
lusion that it restored the army and enabled the Dutch to 
maintain the siege. 

In colonial days witches and the powers attributed to 
them to cure or to create disease proved so serious that 
it became a matter of legislation. I used to sit at the feet 
of my grandfather and listen to the stories of witchcraft 
that seem so strange and mysterious to us now and yet 



not a Religion 29 

were believed in as firmly by him as the old Bible itself. 
Dr. Hudson says, "There is a large class of people in 
every community the fervency of whose belief in theories 
that minister to their emotions is always in inverse pro- 
portion to the amount of evidence that can be adduced to 
sustain them. Hence it happens that those theories which 
command their most fervent belief, and are advocated 
with hysterical aggressiveness, are invariably those which 
everybody knows to be untrue." This statement is pe- 
culiarly true of Christian Science in the affirmation by 
which it declares that there is no physical pain. Every- 
body knows this to be false, and yet men and women go 
on, and by accepting that principle, though against all 
reason, often find healing. They know it is false, and 
not one of them would accept it except in the form of 
mysticism. You know it. As soon as you are permitted 
to reason, the logic and doctrine of that cult cannot be 
accepted by any man ; and yet Dr. Hudson says that the 
law of suggestion acting on the basis of belief produces 
the same results. The basis of belief may be false, but 
the result of the suggestion may be beneficent. This be- 
ing true we must not infer that all these schools of men- 
tal healing and all these cults are equally valuable or 
equally true. We must not conceive that God is thus 
prodigal of his law or power of revelation. He has not 
thus equalized truth and falsehood, good and evil, for any 
purpose whatever. We must also be careful in the study 
of this great principle, for powers that are extraneous to 
the patient are dangerous. Where the healing power is 
extraneous to the man himself, there is very great danger 






30 Mental Healing 

likely to follow in a reaction of the patient's faith. Many 
of the schools which are teaching mental science are in- 
tensely dangerous because of the extraneous force in- 
voked; and many of our sane and sensible laymen are 
afraid that there is danger in the church laying its hands 
upon this two-edged sword. 

There is some reason for conservatism along that line ; 
and it is especially so of the influence of suggestion when 
administered by any extraneous power, even though that 
power be implored as divine. 

There is, therefore, but one system that is correct and 
it is that system which is based on demonstrable, in- 
ductive, scientific truth. That is always safe whether it 
be in the criticism of the Bible, in the examination of the- 
ology, in the great domain of science, in the physical or 
material universe or in the activities of mind, in psychol- 
ogy, or in the demonstration of mind over matter. It 
is safe for men to follow where science leads. The divine 
power may always be justly implored to assist in the 
realization of a divine law or divine truth. 

Now the question is, is there a working hypothesis? 
Is there a demonstrable, scientific truth on which this 
work, as a science and an art, may be based? I believe 
there was nothing of the kind in science ten years ago, 
but I am persuaded that there is today. Whether or not 
it has completely worked out an ultimate law, it now ap- 
pears that science has reached a working hypothesis and 
will reduce mental healing to a system. In so far as sci- 
ence has done this the subject is worthy of our study; 
and when science has formulated the law and made it 



not a Religion 31 

safe, the law may then be used by any church, school, 
physician or individual, religious or irreligious, with a 
reasonable degree of safety. Demonstrable scientific truth 
in the hands of sane men, or in the hands of scholarship, 
is a safe proposition. 

I think I have demonstrated to your minds that I do 
not regard this universal law as a religion. It works as 
well out of the church as in it. But all mental healing has 
a faith basis, whether it be religious or irreligious. It is 
the faith of the subjective mind. Suggestion has its 
therapeutic value only in so far as faith can be and is ex- 
ercised. That faith may be in Mary Baker Eddy, in John 
Alexander Dowie or in the stick or stone that the imagin- 
ation of the primitive mind has conceived to be inhabited 
by some personality of God or devil. It may be in any 
one of a thousand things and the result would be the 
same. But mark this, // has a faith basis. It is only 
sensible and sane to allow that faith to rest in the author 
and finisher of faith and power, the Infinite and Eternal 
Creator. The subjective mind is the mind of the person- 
ality and the mind that bears the attribute of God. Hence, 
the faith that assimilates the human will with the Divine 
Will becomes the most potent faith for the action of men- 
tal healing. Religion, therefore, is not alien to mental 
healing, it is auxiliary. 

In so far as functional disorders affect personality, and 
in so far as mental healing readjusts the conception 
of the personality toward the Divine Law and toward the 
Divine Father, it ought to be used in connection with re- 
ligion. In so far as it leads to higher spiritual life and 



32 



Mental Healing 



nobler conceptions of God, it may be used judiciously in 
connection with the church. 

I have laid these thoughts before you for thought, medi- 
tation and prayer. To the human mind, this great uni- 
versal law of God is a serious thing and worthy of un- 
prejudiced heart searching study. To know how far we 
may use this principle is the question demanding our at- 
tention. I have not said anything about its limitations. 
They are great. I do not want you to feel because of 
what I have said, there are no limitations. But in spite 
of limitations it is a majestic power to be used by the 
man of God if he uses it with reverence and good sense. 




THE DUAL MIND, 
CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS 



For the mind of the flesh is death ; but the mind of the « 
Spirit is life and peace. — Romans, 8 :6. 



My son, attend to my words ; 
Incline thine ear unto my sayings. 
For they are life unto those that find them, 
And health to all their flesh.— Proverbs 4 : 20, 22. 



^ 



1 








The Dual Mind, 
Conscious and Subconscious 



AST Sunday night, while I tried to show 
you that this whole science of mental heal- 
ing was not a religion, I said that it rested 
on faith. Preliminary to what I have to 
say tonight in regard to the dual mind, I 
wish to say that the faith on which action 
rests has three characteristics: first, it is 
acquired by study and reasoning, and is 
not in any sense the faith that grows out of superstitious 
thought; second, this faith, grounded in law and fact, is 
permanent and rational; third, in such faith, permanent 
and rational, there is no diverse auto-suggestion arising 
from the objective mind that weakens the potency of the 
suggestion. If we are then to have a faith that is ration- 
al, a faith that may be acquired by study and reasoning 
and have no reaction afterward, we must understand 
the nature of the mind in which that faith is grounded. 
So tonight your attention is directed to the character of 
the human mind, and its duality. 

Paul says that "the mind of the flesh is death ; but the 
mind of the Spirit is life and peace." The reason that I 
read in your hearing from the 7th chapter of Romans 



36 The Dual Mind, 

was that Paul recognizes two powers in every human 
understanding: The mind of the flesh and the mind of 
the Spirit. Jesus implies the same thing when he says, 
"that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Old Testament teach- 
es the same thing when it speaks of the body returning 
to dust from whence it came and the spirit to God who 
gave it. Science demonstrates the teaching of the law 
of the spirit in regard to two minds. 

Professor James says: "It must be admitted, there- 
fore, that in certain persons at least, the total possible 
consciousness may be split into two parts which co-exist, 
but mutually ignore each other, and share the objects of 
knowledge between them. More remarkable still, they 
are complementary ." 

Dr. Hudson says : "Man has, or appears to have, two 
minds, each endowed with separate and distinct attri- 
butes and powers; and each capable under certain con- 
ditions, of independent action." 

Dr. Quackenbos says : "Man is a two-fold nature, ma- 
terial and spiritual. As a spiritual being, the created copy 
of God, he is continuous in nature with God, and by rea- 
son of his divine pedigree he is invested immeasurably 
with supernormal attributes, faculty and knowledge, 
which, under certain conditions, he has power to utter in 
his objective existence. He has thus perfect control over 
the flesh — both over bodily functions and over intellect- 
ual, emotional and moral expression." 

Dr. Sowerby says: "The human spirit, next to the 
Holy Spirit of God, is the mightiest agent in the world 



Conscious and Sub-Conscious 37 

today. It can live independently of the body ; it controls 
cell change, the circulation of the blood, excretion, secre- 
tion and sensation. It acts independently of the five 
senses, sees through matter, reads the thoughts of others, 
never forgets, never sleeps, and never dies." 

Paul says : "For the good that I would I do not ; but 
the evil which I would not, that I do." 

We can easily believe this if we believe in the immor- 
tality of the human soul. We cannot read stories like 
that of the transfiguration of our Lord, with Moses and 
Elias, without believing in the hereafter of this immortal 
part of man that is capable of action independent of the 
flesh; that is, personality. The teaching of Holy Scrip- 
ture and modern science, as to the mental processes of 
humanity, agree. There is a recognition of unity in this 
duality. I mention this fact lest some may think that 
the dual mind is not a unity. It is a unity, and at the 
same time a duality. 

The mind of the flesh is a reasoning power. The mind 
of the Spirit is intuitive. The mind of the flesh reaches 
its logical conclusions by processes of development, step 
by step. The intuitive nature reaches its conclusions at 
once on hearing that which offers suggestion. There is in 
every human being, personality, whether we are able to 
define it or not. We all believe there is a difference be- 
tween man and the beast of the field. One man has said 
that if the pig could become selfconscious and realize that 
he was a pig, he would immediately cease to be a pig. The 
fact that we are conscious that we are individuals, and ca- 
pable of reviewing the past and foreseeing the future, ca- 



38 The Dual Mind, 

pable of bringing our experiences together and comparing 
them for better or for worse, implies a self-conscious na- 
ture that is not found in the animal kingdom. That pow- 
er we call personality. We have certain power that is 
independent of the flesh. It acts sometimes independent 
of the body and we are unable to understand its nature 
and character. I am not defining the sub-conscious mind 
as the philosopher or scientist would define it; I am not 
explaining it from the cerebral processes, as he might 
explain it; but I am explaining it from the experiences 
and observations that cannot be accounted for on the 
basis of the conscious mind ; and it is called the sub-con- 
scious mind because it seems to be under the control of 
the conscious mind. 

For a working hypothesis, we speak of this intuitive 
nature, this nature which receives intuitions that we can- 
not come to through reason, and cannot be explained by 
reason, as the mind of the spirit, or, the sub-conscious 
mind. The action of the gray matter of the brain we call 
the conscious mind ; but the functions of personality man- 
ifest through suggestion, we call the sub-conscious mind. 
We must necessarily in cur discussion tonight, attribute 
more to our nature than the philosopher would. I am 
not sure that Dr. Wilde would agree with me on that 
point. He would probably bring it more closely to the 
conscious mind or that part of the nervous power that 
does not reside in the brain itself. 

Let us examine some of the experiences of humanity. 
In the first place we may speak of dreams. There is 
something very peculiar about dreams. Some of them 



Conscious and Sub-Conscious 39 

can be explained on the basis of the conscious mind, and 
some cannot. If we go back to Scripture, we find many 
strange dreams. Joseph was warned in a dream to flee 
down into Egypt. Joseph of Old Testament fame had 
dreams significant of his later power and of his lordship 
over his brethren. The dreams of Nebuchadnezzar inter- 
preted by Daniel, those of Pharoah's servants interpreted 
by Joseph while in prison, and many others which the 
ordinary psychological explanation does not satisfy, were 
potent in shaping Israelitish history. If we turn from 
these to dreams of later date known among ourselves, 
there are some things difficult of explanation. These 
experiences are sometimes called telepathy. Telepathy is 
the relation of mental processes between distant persons. 
It is the wireless exchange of mental affections. I do not 
feel in a great congregation like this that I should refer 
to personal experiences, and yet in this connection I de- 
sire to give an experience of my own. I would not do 
this if I stood alone, but many others have had similar 
experiences. While I was a student in college, at one 
time a special problem was given to the class in geometry. 
The professor, the teacher of this class, gave us several 
original problems without equations or diagrams, one of 
which was very intricate and difficult of solution. Three 
boys stood at the head of the class. Night after night, 
after we had finished our other lessons, we worked over 
this problem, and yet we failed of success. One night 
after preparation of my Greek lesson I took up my pencil 
and again worked on the problem with intense energy un- 
til two o'clock in the morning, but I could see nothing in 






40 The Dual Mind, 

it. At the end of this long study, I dropped my pencil and 
retired. I fell asleep and after about two hours I had a 
dream in which the solution of the problem came to me. 
While the vision of the solution was in my mind, I arose, 
lighted my lamp, made the drawings, wrote out the 
equations and retired. The next morning I looked at my 
tablet and found it was right in every particular. I ask 
is there anything in the conscious mind that makes it 
possible to solve a problem in a dream when it cannot be 
solved in the waking hours? 

. .The late Dr. Horace Tarbell, whose geographies and 
other text books are widely known in the public schools 
of America, was for eighteen years the successful super- 
intendent of the public schools in Providence, R. I. He 
never retired at night without placing by his bed-side 
pencil, tablet and lamp, which he might require to record 
the results of his mental processes in his dreams. He thus 
often solved problems and caught ideas which were im- 
possible in his waking hours. How do you explain 
that? Was that a mere matter of the conscious mind? 
Is that the action of the cerebrum? There are many oth- 
er instances of a similar nature where the sub-conscious 
mind works out problems, the results of which could be 
obtained in no other way. 

I am going to relate a few incidents illustrating this 
which are well authenticated and not mere newspaper 
stories. The following is one of the strangest cases in 
the history of science: A girl, having lost her mind, a 
few years ago proved a very perplexing case to the physi- 
cians in charge. She was found to be suffering from a 



Conscious and Sub-Conscious 41 

nervous fever. In the fever she became so disturbed 
mentally that she did not know what she was doing, she 
was unconscious of what was going on about her. Dur- 
ing - these periods of unconsciousness she began to recite 
with great readiness and fluency whole passages of He- 
brew, Greek, and Latin poetry. She recited with such 
clearness that they could write it down. They began to 
search out the means by which she could thus recite the 
Hebrew, Greek and Latin, for she did not know one 
Hebrew letter from another; the other languages were 
equally strange to her. She was a domestic, and of very 
limited education. Physicians that took the matter up 
soon became very much interested in the case, and in the 
search to find out the source of the strange phenomenon. 
It was discovered that at one time she had lived in the 
house of an old clergyman. Upon investigation it was 
found that the old clergyman was dead, but a niece that 
used to live with him still survived. They found the 
niece who had inherited all his property including his 
library, and with her they took up the case of the girl. 
This girl, she said, came to live in her uncle's home, and 
the library was just off the kitchen where the girl was ac- 
customed to assist with the work. Her uncle was ac- 
customed to read aloud Greek, Latin and Hebrew history 
and poetry, in which the girl seemed much interested. 
When the physicians went to the library and began to 
search, they found the poetry and other literature from 
which the girl had recited whole passages word for word. 
Can you explain that on the basis of the conscious mind? 
This whole mental process of which I am speaking is 



42 The Dual Mind 

not a new thing. Some years ago, a boy was born in the 
state of Vermont. At the age of six years, he began to 
show genius in mathematics. He had never studied arith- 
metic or algebra, and yet he could do difficult problems. 
"At a meeting of his friends, which was held for the pur- 
pose of concerting the best methods of promoting the 
views of the father, this child undertook and completely 
succeeded in raising the number 8 progressively up to 
the sixteenth power. And in naming the last result, viz., 
281,474,976,710,656, he was right in every figure. He was 
then tried as to other numbers consisting of one figure, all 
of which he raised (by actual multiplication, and not by 
memory) as high as the tenth power, with so much facili- 
ty and despatch that the person appointed to take down 
the results was obliged to enjoin him not to be so rapid. 
With respect to numbers consisting of two figures, he 
would raise some of them to the sixth, seventh and eighth 
power, but not always with equal facility; for the larger 
the products became, the more difficult he found it to 
proceed. He was asked the square root of 106,929; and 
before the number could be written down, he immediate- 
ly answered 327. He was then required to name the cube 
root of 268,336,125; and with equal facility and prompt- 
ness he replied 645." How was it that the boy could do 
that with no knowledge of mathematics? Everyone 
knows it did not depend on the knowledge of the con- 
scious mind, or reason. 

Can you explain the phenomena manifested along 
lines of music? Many of you have heard that phenomen- 
al musician known as "Blind Tom," in his musical pro- 



Conscious and Sub-Conscious 43 

grams. It is said that he could reproduce any piece of 
music he had ever heard whether it was a month or a 
year or ten years later. I do not know whether he could 
produce the so-called classical music note for note. Some 
musicians say he could not do that with accuracy; but 
no one will question his genius who ever heard him play. 
Who on normal grounds can explain the particular func- 
tion by which he accomplished such marvelous things? 
And yet beyond that wonderful knowledge of music, he 
knew nothing. He could not even take proper care of 
himself. 

Other illustrations are intuitive or along the line of 
impelling suggestion. There was in the city of Chicago 
a man who had a little daughter. This little girl was ac- 
customed to go to the theater, especially to the matinee. 
A few years ago, he bought tickets for her to go one after- 
noon. It was the afternoon of the fatal matinee in the 
Iroquois Theater in which so many hundreds of people 
lost their lives. The little girl said to her father, "I do 
not want to go this afternoon." Upon asking her why, 
for he was surprised that she did not want to go, she said : 
"I do not know, but I do not want to go." Upon urging 
her to go and take her brother, she went. She stayed on- 
ly a little while, and taking her brother went to her fath- 
er's office. Her father was much surprised, and asked 
why she did not remain at the play, she replied : "They 
are going to have a fire in there ;" and within 20 minutes 
551 people had lost their lives. Can this be explained on 
the basis of the conscious mind? 



44 The Dual Mind, 

A minister, who was the pastor of a church, sitting one 
afternoon in his study working at his sermon had the im- 
pression that he ought to visit one of his parishioners who 
lived in the country. It was an exceedingly disagreeable 
day; the minister sat and looked out of the window at 
the falling rain, and said to himself, "this impression is 
foolish and I will not go." After working a few minutes 
more, he said, "I must go." Putting on his coat and hat, 
he went to the barn, harnessed his horse and drove four 
miles to see the man. To his very great surprise, there 
was no one at home. He said, "There, I knew it was fool- 
ish, I find now that it was a mistake." He walked around 
the house, entered the woodshed and waited for the slack- 
ing of the rain. While there he said something impelled 
him to pray for the man and his family, and he kneeled 
down and prayed aloud for their protection. After he had 
thus prayed, he arose, got into his carriage and went 
home. Some months afterward a man came to see this 
minister, and said : "Do you remember that at such a time 
you came to a man's woodshed and kneeled down and 
prayed?" I was in that woodshed, hiding behind the 
woodpile with my rifle in hand. I was there to kill that 
man. If you had not called I should have taken his life ; 
but after you had been there, and I heard you pray for his 
safety, I took my rifle and slipped out; and now I am 
thankful to you for coming and saving his life, and sav- 
ing me from committing a crime. Later I learned he was 
innocent of the wrong I thought he had committed." It 
matters not whether you call it a coincidence or a freak 
of nature, you cannot explain that incident on the basis 
of the conscious mind. 



Conscious and Sub-Conscious 45 

There is no limit to the illustrations like those I have 
been reciting, to demonstrate the fact that there is an 
inner and spiritual nature that Paul calls the mind of the 
spirit, of which we can make no explanation from the 
standpoint of the conscious mind. We find it in our 
dreams at night. How many times do we have presenti- 
ments or intuitions which no law of mind-reading can 
explain. How many times in everyday life there are 
things that you cannot explain apart from some sub-con- 
scious power that lies deep in your nature. The clock 
strikes, and some seconds afterward we hear and realize 
it; or someone asks a question, and sometime passes be- 
fore the conscious mind catches it. All along the line, we 
find these manifestations that seem to transcend the con- 
scious mind. 

I have not spoken of the use of suggestion. I leave 
the thought with you until next Sunday when I shall 
speak on that theme. I might speak of hypnotism, mes- 
merism and clairvoyancy and affirm that there are things 
about them that no man can explain on the basis of the 
conscious mind. It brings me back to my text. Paul had 
deep meaning in his language when he said "For the 
mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is 
life and peace." Jesus had meaning in his language 
when he said "that which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." When we 
come back to the spiritual nature, the personality so won- 
derful in its fashioning, that marvelous power which be- 
longs to every man, we watch with astonishment its won- 
derful manifestations. The facts we have observed; but 
the law we have not known until science, within a decade, 
has laid it at our feet, and given us a glimpse of an old 
revelation in a new dress. 



SUGGESTION AND AUTO-SUGGESTION 



But the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither 
can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned.— I. Cor. 2:14. 



Train up a child in the way he should go: and when 
he is old, he will not depart from it. — Prov. 22 :6. 



He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and 
he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. — Prov. 
16:32. 






Character is more than intellect. A great soul will be 
strong to live, as well as to think. Goodness outshines 
genius, as the sun makes the electric light cast a shadow. 
— Emerson. 



Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion 



1 i>\3&~ l!nKS9B»J 



I AST Sunday night, I called your attention 
to the dual mind, and its recognition by 
Jesus, by Paul, and in modern science. 
Tonight I quote again from Paul as he 
teaches that in the acquirement of knowl- 
edge the natural man fails in a significant 
part. All knowledge cannot be acquired 
alike. There are the things that are natural, that may be 
acquired by the natural man ; and things that are spiritual, 
which cannot be acquired by the natural man, but in order 
that they may be known they must be perceived by the 
spiritual, or as Paul says, they are spiritually discerned. 
As you well know, in these evening themes I have not 
made an exposition of the text. I have simply read a 
passage suggestive of the line of thought. Tonight I call 
your attention to two or three things introductory to the 
sermon, — things simply marvelous that have come to us 
here at home, illustrating the theme I have been discuss- 
ing. A gentleman, a prominent lawyer in the city, fur- 
nishes this illustration. He is present tonight, and if I do 



50 Suggestion and 

not repeat it correctly I am subject to rebuke. While this 
man was a lad in the academy, the class had completed a 
work in algebra and a higher algebra had been introduced. 
In this there were difficult problems, one of which the 
teacher was unable to solve. The whole class was strug- 
gling with it, teacher as well as pupils. One night this 
young man, after working until after the midnight hour, 
retired to rest. He had been working on one of those old 
fashioned slates with a hardwood frame, such as they 
used to use. He cleaned the slate before retiring, but 
the next morning that problem was on it solved in every 
detail, both sides of the slate being covered with the 
figures. The work was in his own handwriting. He 
had not been sufficiently conscious to know that he had 
arisen from his bed during the night. This is simply the 
manifestation of the power of the sub-conscious mind 
while the conscious mind is unaware of what is going on. 
Another case which is marvelous, and worthy of a 
place in science: I shall not mention names lest I might 
cause embarrassment. While we were in the sanctuary 
worshiping last Sunday night, a young woman, a stu- 
dent in the State University, who had been working hard, 
and whose problems had been bearing down upon her 
very heavily, became unconscious through nervous pros- 
tration. This young woman wandered across the city, 
fell on the sidewalk and was found unconscious. She was 
carried into a house nearby and the next morning was 
sent to her home. She did not recognize her parents, 
sister, friends or her own home. She thought she was 
in some strange place, a hospital or sanitarium. She 



Auto-Suggestion 51 

talked wildly, her brain being very much excited, and she 
remained in this condition more or less all day Monday, 
and especially in the afternoon was delirious. Tuesday 
her delirium was as bad as ever, and at no time had she 
come to recognition of her home and family. Her con- 
dition continued into Wednesday with no change for the 
better. Then her family telephoned me to come into the 
home and see her. I went on Wednesday morning. I 
told her parents that from what I had heard and could 
learn from conversation with her sister and mother, I be- 
lieved her to be susceptible to suggestion. I had some 
conversation with her mother and inquired into her con- 
dition before I entered the room where she was lying. 
Upon going into her room I found her in serious deliri- 
um, not knowing what she was talking about and yet 
talking much of the time. There was a look on her face 
betraying her condition. I talked with her until I learned 
the bent of her mind in its unbalanced condition, then I 
proceeded to use the law of suggestion for the restoration 
of her mind to consciousness. I told her what to do and 
what she would do from 10 :30 until 5 o'clock. I told her 
that she would rest quietly that day and that a certain 
person would come to her home and would tell her cer- 
tain things about the State University and about the 
Sunday School in Wesley Church, the High School, etc., 
and as he told her these things, she would come to con- 
sciousness. She followed the suggestions to the letter, 
from 10:30 until 5 o'clock. When the person came and 
told her of the things mentioned in the suggestion, she 
came to consciousness and one hour later, clothed in her 



52 Suggestion and 

right mind, she was eating her supper with the family, 
and later in the evening entertained them by playing the 
piano. She has been bright and happy up to this time. 
This is only a manifestation of the law of suggestion. 
There was nothing peculiar about the suggestions made, 
nothing other than any one might have done. We are in 
the presence of a mighty law that governs human action 
and I recite this as a matter of illustration. I would like 
to tell you the complete story, but it would take the entire 
time of this discourse. It is worthy a place in the his- 
tory of science. It is a most wonderful demonstration of 
the dual mind. There were many things said illustrative 
of the dual mind, but not of a dual personality. 

I am to speak tonight of the law of suggestion. It is 
a powerful law. Whether we can prove that there is a 
dual mind or not, is of no great significance in the use of 
this law of suggestion. I want to impress upon your 
mind the fact that men and women are susceptible to 
suggestion; they come under the power of suggestion 
precisely as if there were a dual mind. It is of no very 
great importance to Science whether or not we can prove 
there are atoms in actual existence; but this is true, sci- 
entists demonstrate that matter acts as // there were 
atoms. It is of no very great importance whether we 
can prove the theorem of Newton with regard to the heav- 
enly bodies ; but one thing is true, namely, that the heav- 
enly bodies act as if the theorem were true. It is of no 
importance whether we can demonstrate to your satisfac- 
tion in science, that there is a dual mind, but one thing is 
true; under the strange law of suggestion and auto-sug- 



Autosuggestion 53 

gestion, men and women act as if there were a dual mind. 
That is the only thing that concerns us. A working hy- 
pothesis is what we are seeking. 

Every great law discovered in science meets with uni- 
versal objection. Dr. Hudson, speaking along this line, 
says: 

"When this is once accomplished, however, — such is 
the 'conservation of science,' or the perversity of human 
nature, — the discovery is generally destined to encounter 
three successive stages of opposition. First, it is met 
with a universal shout of derision. When that fails to 
disprove it, as it sometimes does, everybody claims it as 
his own. When that is disproved, as it sometimes is, each 
claimant proceeds to cover himself with the dust of old 
libraries in an effort to prove that it was always known." 

It was so with Keplar's theory, it was so with Newton's 
nebular hypothesis. Everybody knew it was so from 
the beginning. Talk about Newton's discovery of gravi- 
tation. Why, everybody has always known about it. So 
it is with the law of suggestion. It is now in the stage of 
ridicule. Churches are afraid if they make use of it some- 
body will point the finger of scorn; however, some are 
coming to use it, and are receiving commingled praise 
and ridicule. There is one underlying principle which is 
uniform. The law of suggestion does its potent work 
through the essence of faith. I called your attention to it 
in the first and second sermons of this series and want 
to emphasize it tonight. The fact that Jesus used it is 
enough to exalt faith, aside from the fact that it is the 
one scientific thing underlying the power of suggestion. 



: 



54 Suggestion and 

I think we shall never be able to improve upon it what- 
ever may be the experience we gain. Those familiar with 
Carpenter's Physical Law will remember that he uses 
the phrase here and there, "Expectant Attention." Sci- 
entists may regard Dr. Carpenter's discovery of the men- 
tal process known as "Expectant Attention" as a great 
discovery; but when Dr. Carpenter discovered that men- 
tal process, and used this scientific phrase for the simple 
phrase Jesus used when he said, "Thy faith hath made 
thee whole," he had added nothing new to human ex- 
perience. 

After the introduction of mesmerism and hypnotism, 
when these phenomena came under criticism and analy- 
sis, especially that phase known as mesmerism, it was 
taken up by the Medical School of Paris and they ap- 
pointed a committee to investigate. They made a careful 
analysis, and reported to the Medical Academy of Paris 
that there was a very great therapeutic value in it, and 
that marvelous cures had been made, but they had dis- 
covered that these cures were merely products of the 
"imagination" and therefore unworthy of the attention 
of the Medical Academy. They had simply another word 
for the phrase Jesus used when he said, "Thy faith hath 
made thee whole." As I have already demonstrated, in 
the use of this working faith, it does not necessarily 
mean a faith in God or a faith in Christ. It is a state of 
mind. 

What do we mean by suggestion as related to faith? 
Suggestion is no substitute for a working faith. There 
is nothing in it to cure any disease. The creative power 



Auto-Suggestion 55 

does not lie in the working suggestion. It is no substi- 
tution for the mental condition of faith. But suggestion 
is that power of mind brought either by another, or by 
oneself upon the mind, by which the faith of the mind is 
crystallized. It is that power brought upon the mind by 
which the mind itself yields and accomplishes that which 
is suggested. Suggestion is always of value in the super- 
inducing of faith. When faith has been awakened, it 
crystallizes it into experience. I have learned through ex- 
perience in the last fifteen months that we can do nothing 
for the sufferer, unless he has faith in the use of this 
great power. So I affirm it is suggestion crystallizing 
faith that accomplishes the results. 

Dr. Sowerby, one of the most conscientious of writers, 
maintains that all cures outside of medicinal cures, and 
he recognizes the therapeutic value of medicine, are di- 
vine cures. He attributes the cure to the Divine Father in 
all schools of healing. He believes that even if the faith 
is in a stick or a stone, or in the bones of an old saint, 
no matter what be the object, the healing is a divine mani- 
festation of power. I like to believe that myself. I like 
to believe that every mortal is in so close touch with God 
that the restoration of the body is a manifestation of the di- 
vine will and immanence. I wish now to speak of the prac- 
tical side of suggestion, instead of its therapeutic value. 
Take for example the influence and power of suggestion 
upon child life. This is the most significant point I have 
touched in discussing this theme. Children are exceed- 
ingly susceptible to suggestion. There is much written in 
the magazines on the power of suggestion over growing 



56 Suggestion and 

children; how lying and other bad habits are cured by 
the power of suggestion. Any person who accomplishes 
the reformation of a boy or girl in this manner is doing a 
good work, but the power of suggestion is vastly greater 
than that. A little child under normal conditions is af- 
fected more by the power of suggestion than under ab- 
normal conditions. And this is the significance of the 
law I am suggesting to you. No pastor goes very far, 
if he calls at the hour when the children are in the home — 
until he hears remarks such as these: "Mary is a very 
nervous child," "John will never learn anything. He is 
very dull. He cannot get hold of anything at all." 
"Henry is the worst boy you ever saw, the worst boy in 
the whole community ." Now what has happened? The 
mother has done more to make Mary nervous than all 
the work she will do in the next two months. She has 
planted a suggestion in the child's mind that is enough 
to make her a nervous wreck. The mother has done 
more to make John dull and lacking in brain force, than 
his public school teacher can take out in twelve months ; 
and if Henry becomes a bad man charge the blame to the 
mother when she makes that suggestion in the presence 
of Henry. This law of suggestion is a great force. If 
you use it in the right way it will make a good boy out of 
Henry. I am touching live wires tonight when I am talk- 
ing about this power you are using in molding the char- 
acter of your child. There are parents living in this com- 
munity who seldom enter the church. A little while ago 
a mother came to me requesting that something be done 
by which her boy might be induced to come to the sane- 



Auto-Suggestion 57 

tuary and be brought under religious influences. There 
are two periods of time when the child is most susceptible 
to suggestion. These times are at the table when the 
child is eating, and at the hour of retiring at night when 
the child is falling asleep. It is one o'clock on Sunday. 
Father and mother have come home from church. The 
family has gathered about the table. The parents pro- 
ceed to criticize the church, the members, the superin- 
tendent of the Sunday School ; while Johnny is apparently 
concerned only with his beef-steak or turkey. But while 
the conscious mind is absorbed, the subconscious mind 
is having implanted in it the suggestion which will cause 
the boy to refuse to enter the church. This is a tremen- 
dous responsibility. Guard these periods. When the 
members of the family come together and enter into con- 
versation with one another, there is ten times more said 
about the ordinary trashy literature of the day, about 
some scandal or story in the daily newspaper or the 
Sunday newspaper, or some story of gossip that is going 
around, than about the great masterpieces in literature. 
Shakespeare, Milton, Longfellow — these great authors 
with their great masterpieces are pushed aside; and the 
common gossip of the day, the daily newspaper with its 
divorce cases, murder trials, and sensational stories, is 
paraded before the child. Then the parents wonder why 
that child goes to the devil. An easy problem for those 
who know the mighty law of suggestion. 

Much now is being said about the curing of children; 
the curing of the boy who is a thief; the boy who has 
proven untruthful; the boy who is disrespectful to his 



58 Suggestion and 

father and mother. I admit that there are many such 
cases going on record, but that is the abnormal use of 
suggestion. It is vastly better that you keep the boy from 
being a thief, a liar, disrespectful to his father and mother ; 
vastly better that you know the law and use it in mold- 
ing the child's character. 

When the child is falling asleep at night it is most sus- 
ceptible to the law of suggestion, even more than at the 
dinner table. It is a well-known fact today that where 
there is an abundance of wealth, many of the parents 
trust their servants to put the child to bed, and the child 
never hears the fatherly or motherly word at night that 
would mold or shape its character. I say to you that the 
child that is being taught to kneel at its mother's knee, 
and has the motherly word and kiss at night has inherited 
a benediction that angels might covet. To you who have 
children in your homes, let nothing come between you 
and your child, as he falls asleep, to keep you from mold- 
ing and shaping, by suggestion and prayer, the character 
of the child as you want it. The mother who takes ad- 
vantage of that hour and turns it to account in the child's 
life has little to fear. That is what the writer meant when 
he said, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and 
when he is old, he will not depart from it." 

Turning from childhood to manhood this law of sug- 
gestion is still effective, but a man is not as easily im- 
pressed as a child. Every man who is a salesman under- 
stands this law. He knows and uses it. Every salesman 
knows the influence of the power of suggestion. Let me 
say a word to salesmen, clerks, and teachers ; they are all 



Autosuggestion 59 

dealing with the minds of others. The first thing is to 
know your goods. This is just as applicable to the teach- 
er. If the teacher does not know her subject, she is not 
a successful teacher. Know your goods! You must 
know it, whether it be merchandise or mathematics. Sec- 
ond, know yourself. The teacher that understands her- 
self, the salesman that understands himself, is all impor- 
tant. Third, know your customer. If that be a teacher, 
the customer is the child. If the teacher knows these 
three things she may use the law of suggestion with 
mighty power. Know your theme, know yourself, know 
your child. If a salesman, he realizes the nearer he brings 
his mind in accord with the mind of his customer, the 
better are his chances to sell his goods. There must be 
self-appreciation, and yet not bigotry. There must be a 
feeling that he is called to his task. A man with no con- 
fidence in himself cannot bribe his customer with twenty- 
five cent cigars. He passes out the cigars, and thinks he 
has bought him up. Do not be deceived. If you are a 
man of integrity, if you make a suggestion with righteous- 
ness and honesty and fairness in the deal, you will com- 
mand your man. 

I have so far said little about auto-suggestion. That 
power is quite as important, quite as powerful. The dif- 
ference between them is this; in the one case it comes 
from without, in the other from within. If I make a sug- 
gestion to you to accomplish what I desire, it is sugges- 
tion ; if you make the same suggestion to yourself and ac- 
complish what you desire, it is auto-suggestion. It is 
auto-suggestion that we are interested in in this health 



60 Suggestion and 

movement in Wesley Church. We are not so anxious 
to use the law of suggestion ourselves as we are to teach 
men and women to use the power of auto-suggestion. We 
want to put every man in that attitude toward himself 
by which he can be his own master. "To master yourself 
is to cause all things in yourself to enter their true sphere 
of action, and the very moment that the will proceeds to 
direct all things into their true spheres of action, the first 
step in mastership has been attained. 

It is a great thing for a man or woman to become self- 
master. We are trying to teach that it is possible for 
them to accomplish everything they are trying to do. We 
want them to put themselves in tune with the divine 
power, "in tune with the infinite." They have then 
acquired that tremendous power by which a man rises 
to the dignity of his manhood by the conquering of his 
own spirit. In order that auto-suggestion may have its 
full force, when a man is making a suggestion to his own 
mind, it is of importance that he recognizes that there 
are two minds, and out of the conscious mind he is speak- 
ing to the subconscious mind to do the thing he desires 
done. He must feel it. He must rise to where he ex- 
pects it. When a man rises in his expectation of results, 
to where he comes to feel that his deeper nature is allied 
to the power that stands behind this universe, then it 
is that man becomes master of his own spirit. We 
have not yet learned the alphabet of the power of sugges- 
tion and auto-suggestion, for the simple reason that it has 
been regarded as a fake or superstition; anything but a 
divine law that is as universal as the law of gravitation. 



Auto-Suggestion 61 

It is only in the past four or five years that science has 
discovered that this law of suggestion is as uniform as 
the law of gravitation. We find, however, that sugges- 
tion coming from without is destroyed by suggestion 
coming from within. Auto-suggestion is just as great as 
suggestion, sometimes greater. We have experiences 
of this kind when it seems as if the law of which I have 
been speaking is no longer to be trusted. It has been 
proven furthermore that what seemed to destroy the law 
was only counter-suggestion, and it no more destroyed the 
law than a ball of wax thrown to the ceiling and adhering 
there would destroy the law of gravitation. We would 
not say that the law of gravitation had been destroyed, 
but that the law of adhesion had taken its place. In other 
words, when one law is restrained by the action of an- 
other more powerful, it does not follow that the law has 
been destroyed. Where the law of suggestion is counter- 
acted by the law of auto-suggestion, and seems to be 
destroyed, we find they are acting in perfect harmony 
as the law of gravitation and adhesion. I am not speak- 
ing of a freak in Nature, but a law as uniform as the 
law of gravitation, and in another half century it will be 
as well understood as the law of gravitation. 



s 






THE RELATION OF MENTAL HEALING 

TO THE 

CHURCH AND to the NEW TESTAMENT 



Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye 
pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them. — Mark 11:24. 



And Jesus seeing their faith saith unto the sick of the 
palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven. — Mark 2 :5. 

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through 
Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, 
and bare our diseases. — Matt. 8:17. 



Finally, I have one advice which is of very great im- 
portance. You are to consider that health is a thing to be 
attended to continually, as the very highest of all temporal 
things. There is no kind of an achievement equal to per- 
fect health. What to it are nuggets or millions? — Car- 
lyle's Address to Students at Edinburgh. 



The Relation of Mental Healing to the 
Church and to the New Testament 




HHE word health has been greatly narrowed 
in its meaning as used in the Scriptures 
since 1611. In the ritual of the church in 
the sixteenth century, in the "Morning 
Prayer," we find "We have left undone 
those things we ought to have done, and have 
done those things which we ought not to 
have done, and there is no health in us." In 1604 we find 
in the communion prayer the word health in the follow- 
ing passage: "And as the Son of God did vouchsafe to 
yield up his soul by death upon the cross for your health" 
etc. This word is changed in the edition of 1662 to "Sal- 
vation." Also in Wycliff's Bible, Acts 28 :28, "Therefore 
be it known to you, for to heathen men this health of 
God is sent," And in both Wycliff and Tindall, Luke 
19 :9, "This day is health come to this house." 

In modern editions of the Scriptures the word health 
in these passages is translated "Salvation." 

When we consider some of the sayings of Jesus we find 
mental healing is closely related to the New Testament. 






66 The Relation of Mental Healing to the 

It is taught throughout the Evangelical church that men 
are saved by faith. The commonly accepted meaning 
of that term is saved from sin ; but when we come to ex- 
amine the use Jesus made of it we find he always used 
it in connection with bodily healing. He used the phrase 
"Thy faith hath made thee whole," five different times, 
and every time it is used in connection with healing the 
body. He does not use it at all in connection with for- 
giveness of sins. 

The phrase "Thy faith hath saved thee," is used by 
Jesus in connection with the forgiveness of sins and also 
in connection with healing diseases. To the woman who 
had washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them 
with the hairs of her head* he said, "Thy sins are for- 
given, thy faith hath saved thee." And to the blind beg- 
gar who sought to have his eyes opened Jesus said, "Re- 
ceive thy sight; thy faith hath saved thee." It is clear 
from these passages that salvation by faith was not only 
from sin, but also from sickness. There is no place in 
the Scriptures where we find that this salvation by faith 
is "from sin only." 

There are other evidences also of the power of sug- 
gestion in healing diseases in New Testament times. We 
are told in the Acts of the Apostles that from the body of 
Paul were brought handkerchiefs and aprons unto the 
sick, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil 
spirits went out of them. We are further told that the 
sick were brought into the streets and laid upon beds 
and couches that the shadow of Peter might fall on them, 
and they were healed. We find in the gospels that mul- 



Church and to the New Testament 67 

titudes were healed by the touching of the garments of 
Jesus. In the light of modern science we can hardly con- 
ceive that every such healing was a miracle, although in 
the light of the age in which it occurred it was so con- 
strued. It is a clear manifestation of the power of the 
law of suggestion, and with the same amount of faith on 
the part of the patient may be duplicated today. It does 
not follow from this that no miraculous healing was ac- 
complished by Jesus and by the Apostles; but it does 
follow that much healing in that day was the direct result 
of the law of suggestion; and in so far as healing was 
done by the law of suggestion it may be duplicated in 
this day. 

That much disease has a moral basis is an indisputable 
fact. This doctrine is not new. In the days of the Old 
Testament as well as the New the blessings of health 
were directly attributed to God, and the cause of sick- 
ness was considered a punishment inflicted by divine 
power, or by evil spirits by divine permission. Some- 
where or somehow the ill will of the God who ruled over 
all had been incurred and the penalty of disobedience was 
inflicted in form of disease. I once heard a very devout 
follower of Christ say, with all sincerity, that a boil was 
the result of a stroke from the hand of the Devil. He 
believed it even in this day, and he was an advanced stu- 
dent in one of the leading colleges in this country. If 
there is a moral foundation for much of the sickness from 
which humanity suffers, the Church must at least be very 
closely related to it. Whether or not the Church has 
fully discharged its obligation when it encourages medi- 



68 The Relation of Mental Healing to the 

cal colleges, fosters medical science and builds Christian 
hospitals may be a question worthy of discussion. 

This brings us to the relation the Church sustains to 
the question under consideration, viz., the law of sug- 
gestion. The church is for the uplifting of man. It has 
no excuse for existence on any other basis. That human- 
ity may be brought face to face with God through Jesus 
Christ is the highest purpose for which the Church can 
claim the loyal support of a progressive people. It is to 
help realize revealed truth that it may be used for regen- 
eration and transformation of character. The Church is 
to help men to know God through Christ, whom to know 
is life eternal. Christ said, "I am the truth," the truth 
shall make you free. It is the mission of the Church to 
bring that aspect of truth to man which is necessary for 
his salvation, or if we were to hold to Wycliff's or Tin- 
dall's translation, that which is necessary for his health. 

There can be no clash between united truth and related 
truth. United truth may be denned as that truth found 
in the laws governing any single object, as for example, 
the laws governing the physical man ; or the laws govern- 
ing the spiritual nature. Related truth may be defined as 
the truth of the laws of the spiritual as related to the 
truth of the laws of the physical. But if both be truth 
there can be no clash, so we are safe in our hypothesis 
that there can be no discord in united or related truth. 
In Jesus' day, by coming to know Him, men were healed 
of infirmities of the flesh as well as of infirmities of the 
soul. We have more records of bodily healing in his day 
than we have of sins forgiven in his day. Inasmuch as 



Church and to the New Testament 69 

he represented himself to be the truth, and through his 
word a sinful soul was forgiven and the sick body made 
well there can be no clash between the fundamental 
truths applied to accomplish these results. 

Not only the Bible but experience teaches us that men 
are forgiven of their sins in this day, and that character 
is transformed from that which is below the brute crea- 
tion to that of lofty, noble manhood. Experience and ob- 
servation also teach us that by mental processes men 
are healed of their infirmities of the flesh, and that in 
almost all such cases there is a transformation of char- 
acter, or an increased spiritual conception and devotion. 
These experiences are not a few and are constantly grow- 
ing in number. In Jesus' day men were saved from sin 
and from sickness by faith or through faith, and so far as 
can be ascertained neither the law of forgiveness nor the 
law of healing has been repealed. The nature of the law 
by which a man's sins are forgiven is not yet understood, 
and possibly never will be ; but the nature of the law by 
which a man's body is healed is now, through scientific 
investigation, coming to light; but I see no reason why 
its use to the Church should be denied because it has to 
a great extent exchanged its garment of mysticism for a 
robe of intelligence. 

The slogan of the Church has recently been, not saved 
from sin, but saved to service. I like this, but what do 
we mean by saved to service? If a man is saved to serv- 
ice he ought to be saved to the largest, best and happiest 
service possible. When is a man best fitted for service? 
When he is racked with pain and burnt with fever? 



70 The Relation of Mental Healing to the 

When he is despondent, blue, irritable, cross, worrying 
and a chronic dyspeptic? But few people, even with a 
saving faith, suffering with any of these maladies can 
live a joyous, happy, Christian life of large service. It is 
not the pleasure of God that any should suffer merely 
for the sake of suffering. To be sick when a man ought 
to be well is far from honoring God. A man has no more 
business to live in sickness when that is brought on by 
moral causes or ignorant practices than he has to live in 
sin. Multitudes of Christians ask God for grace to bear 
a sickness when it would be vastly nearer God's will if 
they were to ask for grace to remove the sickness. 

Prayer is the key to the right relationship with God. 
It is the truest source of communion with God. It is 
bringing the Divinity within us into communion with the 
Divinity without us. It is the attunement of the human 
spirit through Jesus Christ to the Divine Spirit. This 
means forgiveness of sins and under normal conditions 
healthy bodies. 

I maintain that it is the business of the Church to bring 
the Divine and the human together in the largest possi- 
ble way, and to have men saved for the largest possible 
service; and if to accomplish this it requires the use of 
the whole truth in its application to the whole man then 
I say in the name of the Most High let us use the whole 
truth as science has laid it at our feet. 

We may understand the whole problem better if we 
raise and answer the question : 

"Did Jesus heal diseases by the law of suggestion or 
by miracle?" 



Church and to the New Testament 71 

This question can best be answered by the introduction 
of the story of the paralytic as recorded in the gospel of 
St. Mark, 2:10, 11. He says, "But that ye may know 
that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
(he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, 
and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." 

Three gospels recite this story. Mark gives the most 
detailed narrative. Mark's gospel is declared, by con- 
sensus of Bible scholarship, to be the oldest of the syn- 
optic gospels. The story is therefore stripped of all 
mythical setting. The history of no story is better au- 
thenticated. 

This true, it becomes one of great interest because it 
clothes Jesus with a power that no law of suggestion can 
explain. Thy sins be forgiven thee is not the ring of sug- 
gestion. Jesus here declares the forgiveness of sins be- 
fore he heals the man or suggests any healing of the body. 

The power by which sins are forgiven is a supernatural 
power. It is the divine personality exercising its power 
of compassion toward the human personality which is 
truly penitent. Sin puts the human soul out of tune with 
the divine Father. Forgiveness is the reconciliation or 
the reattunement of the human spirit to the chord of di- 
vine love that ever vibrates in the bosom of God. 

In the case before us Christ saw the need of moral heal- 
ing before physical healing. It is so today in about nine 
cases out of every ten. A little reflection will probably 
justify the statement that nine-tenths of human suffering 
and sickness is of moral origin. The great suffering of 
the human race is not physical pain, but mental and spirit- 
ual pain. It is not the headache, severe as that may be, 



72 The Relation of Mental Healing to the 

but the heartache that makes its inroads upon the physi- 
cal organism. It is not work but worry that kills. No 
one ever worries and feels a sense of gratitude at the 
same time. This is a law that modern science has de- 
monstrated beyond any doubt. I believe the conclusion 
may be drawn that nine-tenths of the physical sickness of 
the human race would be removed if humanity were to 
accept forgiveness of sins and appreciate it as a true sense 
of gratitude would require. 

The expression of gratitude and the cultivation of ap- 
preciation is an art that is easily lost under conditions of 
prosperity. If the study of psychotherapy revives the 
masses to a feeling of the need of cultivating the happy, 
appreciative side of life it will prove to be a great bene- 
faction to the human race. 

This leads us to the very underlying law of health, 
simplicity of life, unselfish behavior toward others, and 
unfailing gratitude toward God, with self-forgetfulness to- 
ward all the little ills that might be easily magnified into 
troubles and nursed into diseases. 

In the light of these suggestions we may well ask 
whether Jesus employed miracle or suggestion for the 
healing of the body. We may equally well answer, both. 
I think it may be established as a well authenticated 
scriptural fact that Jesus never worked a miracle, where 
a miracle was not necessary to establish some point of 
revelation which could not well be established without it. 
He never worked a miracle to satisfy the curious or to 
demonstrate the mere fact that he could do so. Every 
miracle of our Lord was purposive. Every one counted 



Church and to the New Testament 73 

for something in establishing his great mission of redemp- 
tion and revelation. Regarding this as true, we can 
scarcely conceive of every case of healing of our Lord 
as a miracle. Neither do we wish to, for any such con- 
ception narrows the universal law of Christ's power to 
particularity, and thus robs it of its utility as a benefaction 
to mankind. I believe we are safe in saying that Jesus 
never used a miracle to do a thing which could be done 
by the universal laws already established in God's crea- 
tion. The law of suggestion was from the beginning as 
was the law of gravitation. It is quite as universal. 
Gravitation was known from the day of Adam, but was 
not formulated and scientifically expressed until the day 
of Newton. However, as death reigned from Adam to 
Moses, when the law of sin and death was unknown, so 
gravitation was used from Adam to Newton, when the 
law was unknown. But it will be granted that since the 
day of Newton the law of gravitation has been more in- 
telligently used. It has been worth more to science and 
to civilization; but because we have come to know it, it 
is none the less God's law and an expression of God's will. 
So with the law of suggestion. It has been used from 
the day of the first man of the human race. Christ spake 
as one having authority. He used the law as it has not 
been used since or was not used before. He knew the law 
for he was author of the law. Without Him was not 
any thing made that was made. But like the law of gravi- 
tation we have had to wait all these centuries before man 
could discover this subtle power and formulate it into a 
law to be used for suffering humanity. 



74 The Relation of Mental Healing to the 

Serious objections are raised to it now; just as serious 
objections were raised to the law of gravitation when it 
was formulated. Today we smile at the objections raised 
to the law of gravitation in Newton's day and count our- 
selves scholarly because we see things differently. Fifty 
years hence men will laugh at the objections raised now 
to the law of suggestion, and they will seem as far from 
scholarship in that day as the objections to Newton's law 
seem from scholarship today. 

But because Jesus used this law and dignified it, and 
declared that greater works will ye do, we must not con- 
clude that all the healing Jesus did was confined to the 
use of suggestion. In the case before us we have what 
seems in the light of modern scholarship a clear case of 
miraculous healing. The power to forgive sins was called 
in question. He was accused of blasphemy for saying thy 
sins are forgiven. His Messiahship was at stake. His 
power to reveal God and be counted the Son of God was 
under question; a miracle was necessary; and when a 
miracle was necessary he used it. Does he heal diseases 
today by miraculous power? I do not know. We hesi- 
tate to believe any further miracle necessary to establish 
his mission of redemption or of revelation, hence scholars 
have questioned whether he now heals any miraculously. 
But whether he does or not, there are wonderful cases on 
record of healing through faith in God. It is the privilege 
of anyone sick to go to God for new vital force and trust 
Him for regeneration of the body as well as the soul. 
His arm is not shortened to save, nor his power to re- 
deem the whole man limited. 



Church and to the New Testamen t 75 

The atonement has been regarded generally as covering 
the sins of man, but not usually taught as covering the 
sicknesses of the body. However, Christ was not un- 
mindful of the bodily needs of his followers when he of- 
fered himself a sacrifice for their salvation. Matthew 
8:17 says, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmi- 
ties and bear our sicknesses." The New Testament here 
evidently interprets Isa. 53 :4 as covering physical as well 
as moral diseases. Dr. Monroe Gibson says, "Christ re- 
lation to human sickness was of the same kind as his 
relation to human sin." 

Much of the sickness and suffering of humanity is due 
directly or indirectly to sin, and in so far as sin is at the 
root of suffering in so far the atonement covers suffer- 
ing. Lift the world out of selfishness and into a reason- 
able intelligence and much of the suffering would pass 
away. 

The difficulty arising in our modern church work is the 
failure of the church to teach the masses that with salva- 
tion from sin, bodily suffering should be reduced to a 
minimum. But we have rather taught that suffering was 
almost an essential to a high degree of character and have 
prayed for grace equal to the endurance of any kind of 
suffering that might be placed upon us. Christ is never 
pleased with suffering that comes through ignorance or 
through sin. There is an adequate amount of suffering, 
through environments which we cannot control, to cover 
the human need, if humanity needs to suffer at all, but 



76 The Relation of Mental Healing to the 

that which comes from ignorance or sin can never be 
justified on any ground of perfection of character. 

Christian people ought to be taught, therefore, that 
they can be free from much of the suffering they now 
endure. This teaching is legitimately the work of the 
church and ought to be done in the regular ministry, but 
it is not. The work of missions, and teaching the people 
of the church their duty toward the non-Christian peoples 
of the world, is the work of the church and ought to be 
done in the regular work of the church, but it is not. 
Hence, missionary study classes, laymen's movements, 
young people's conventions and a multitude of other agen- 
cies are resorted to, to give the necessary information. 
Then why not classes in the church, advised and directed 
by competent pastors, physicians, and trained laymen, 
for the improvement of health, and to bring the people 
to a consciousness of their privileges in Jesus Christ? 

The ministry of the Church to the body is not a dead 
issue nor an insignificant question. The law of sugges- 
tion as taught by science is a force next to Spiritual force 
in its significance, and if used by the Church and wisely 
directed may become a mighty force in bringing the fol- 
lowers of Christ to a larger realization of their privileges 
in Him, and may become a mighty agency in bringing 
the church to a higher Spiritual level and to a closer walk 
with God. 

If the Church refuses to use this old power, newly 
clothed in scientific dress, charlatans and quacks will 



Church and to the New Testament 77 

use it, and it may become a most formidable instrument 
in the hands of the foes of evangelical Christianity. 

Let the Church consider well before she turns her back 
upon this power which may become her greatest friend. 



M AR 7 3 isuo 



Psychotherapy 

or the Ministry of 

the Church to 

the Body 

Rev. Samuel Medary Dick, Ph. D. 



Price, Twenty-Five Cents. 



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